Smoking rates among teenage girls drops 20% in ten years

Research carried out by academics from Glasgow University and published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, has found that smoking rates among teenage girls have dropped 20% since smokefree laws were introduced across Britain in 2006/07.

The law, which made smoking inside all public buildings illegal, is considered to have been an extremely successful piece of health legislation and experts argue that the ban has ‘de-normalised’ smoking.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity ASH, said: ‘We already know that smokefree laws led to significant reductions in smoking in the home and in asthma.

‘It makes sense that children growing up in homes where smoking is less acceptable will also be less likely to become smokers themselves.’

Kick the habit this No Smoking Day

Dental treatment provider, Mydentist, is calling on smokers across the UK to quit smoking on No Smoking Day for the good of their oral health.

Steve Williams, clinical services director at Mydentist, said: “The links between smoking and lung and oral cancer have been well documented, with cases of oral cancer on the rise. People are less aware of the damage to the gums and teeth that smoking causes. Recent studies have shown the importance of good oral health as these have been linked with both heart disease and diabetes.”

India: Health ministry calls for tobacco tax after WHO warning

The Indian Health Ministry secretary BP Sharma, is calling for tobacco tax hikes to make smoking ‘unaffordable’ after a World Health Organisation warning.

He wrote: the “WHO study recommended that not only the tax on all types of tobacco products should be increased substantially but the tobacco tax regime should also be broadened to include manufacturing of tobacco products by the informal sector under the tax net.”

1855 Letter from “enemy of tobacco”

As The Daily Telegraph publishes its 50,000th edition, they look back at past letters from readers.

One dated 15th November 1855 and entitled ‘Railway nuisances’ reads:

“Being a daily reader of your journal, and perceiving that you have for your principle the administration of justice and redress of wrongs, I will expose a practice which is in daily use, and, although opposed to the regulations of the railway companies, yet sanctioned (not without a consideration of some kind) by their servants, to the great annoyance of other passengers.

I allude to persons smoking in first-class railway carriages, a habit not at all consistent with our present advanced state of civilisation, and one quite at variance with refined taste. If people cannot be happy without (to them) the “indulgence” of a weed during a short journey by railway, why not have compartments expressly for that purpose, and so conspicuously different from other carriages, so that those who do not wish to inhale the fumes of stale tobacco may be released from the nuisance?

In the sincere hope that, by your valuable paper, you may reap the remuneration which your assiduity deserves, I am, Sir, yours, &c.,

Parliamentary Questions

PQ1: Action on Smoking and Health

Lord Naseby Conservative
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to review the grant awarded to the organisation Action on Smoking and Health in the current financial year in the light of the announcement by the Cabinet Office on 6 February in relation to charity funding.

Lord Prior of Brampton The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
The conditions applicable to grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) are set out in the grant award letters, including a specific clause in the grant award letter which makes explicit that the award has been made under the provisions of Section 64 and may not be used for lobbying.

ASH’s compliance with the conditions of the grant is assessed at the grant monitoring meetings held between the Deputy Director of tobacco control and representatives from ASH as well as in the final full year grant monitoring and governance reports.

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This website has been archived for the UK Web Archive by the British Library. ASH has been certified as a producer of reliable health and social care information.ASH has been certified as a producer of reliable health and social care information

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